


Magnetic Attraction

by BookofOdym



Category: DCU, DCU (Comics), Green Lantern (Comics), Green Lantern - All Media Types
Genre: Enemies to Friends to Lovers, M/M, and bito already had a tag hmm, i guess it's exploring time, the first neal fic i cannot believe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-23
Updated: 2018-06-23
Packaged: 2019-05-27 11:50:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15023978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BookofOdym/pseuds/BookofOdym
Summary: Hal gets a new roommate, Batman is going to murder him





	Magnetic Attraction

**Author's Note:**

> This is the most self-indulgent fic I have ever written, if this gets 10 hits I will be surprised.  
> I am the only person who cares about the Earth Villains.

“Don’t worry kid, you could be like Hal, who spends half his time fighting a literal fuckin’ tiger shark.”

Hal, who was too busy stealing John’s premium coffee bought only minutes after returning to Earth, could only raise his middle finger in response to that.

“Sonar is a candy ass and I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve made Doctor Polaris cry.”

“Please stop bullying the mentally ill, Guy.”

“I took care of the Tattooed Man pretty handily too,” Guy continued, taking every opportunity to show off.

“Oh,” Hal said, stirring what was apparently now his coffee. “You mean after you harassed an innocent ex-con at his place of work and made me do half of the fighting.”

“NO!”

“Sonar isn’t a candy ass either, I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve been on the ropes at the end of Bito Wladon’s Sounding Rod.”

John finally looked up from where he was writing notes, he was the only Lantern who ever really bothered. “Please Harold. Never say that again.”

“That’s what it’s called!”

“It’s called the Sonigun!” John Stewart had been through a lot in his time and he should have been used to it, but the point of letting them all go back to Earth for leave had been to avoid dealing with Hal Jordan for two days, at which point he would probably get drunk and plant himself directly in John's lap for 'mandatory cuddle time'.

A cleared throat at the end of the table indicated that Batman had finally decided to speak. “The time and place for this conversation is not in the quarterly budget meeting.” Or _ever._ “Either shut up or leave.”

* * *

 

One of the most important traits of Harold Jordan was that he had a thing about redemption. Just because he was willing to kill Sinestro on occasion and had been willing to kill in several space wars, didn’t mean that he wanted to kill any of his major villains. Especially not those who were always trying to reform themselves.

In fact, his entire time as Spectre had been about going against God’s will and turning the spirit into a tool for redemption instead of murder.

Plus, Sinestro was a dick, killing a guy after he attempted to drive you insane via possession was a little different to one strike you’re outing Guy for cheating on his taxes.

March in Coast City was never particularly welcoming. It seemed like every year the storms just got worse and worse. Having to go to a League budget meeting on the day after all four of them had finally been allowed to go back to Earth had been rough too, he’d ended up with a stack of papers dropped on his head after falling asleep halfway through the meeting, his drool coating the desk. Hal reached up an arm to rub his eye and ended up smacking himself in the face with his own elbow.

With these high winds that could push a fully-grown person into the road with ease it was almost impossible to carry enough Chinese food to feed a small army, or at least enough to feed one Lantern who had spent the last three months living off of Oan food (charitably described as ‘less fatal than not eating at all’), without losing your umbrella.

Or at least it was for any person who couldn’t create constructs. Luckily for everyone, the lightning periodically striking was enough to keep all of the civilians off of the streets.

“Old friend, I know that all of us know your secret identity but unless you want Miss Ferris to fire you again you need to be more careful, keep the newsgroups from interrupting fights.”

Well someone had clearly been at the Facebook.

Doctor Polaris, or should he say Neal Emerson at this particular moment because the man’s attire was decidedly devoid of purple (or weird tuning fork hats? Seriously shouldn’t that be a Sonar thing? What did the hat have to do with magnets?), was one of Hal’s Earth Villains, who he had much less time to pay attention to now because someone couldn’t stop creating new types of ring (his money was on a radio wave ring by the end of the week).

The man had an obsession with magnets and polarity which combined with his already present mental illnesses to create “two selves: one good and one evil” although the reality was a little more complicated than that. Even on Neal’s worse days, Hal could never imagine him destroying Coast City, or summoning the zombie apocalypse, or driving a former friend insane in a crazy revenge plan. The dude had even fought to save the universe at one point.

He had been one of the first villains to discover Hal’s secret identity during an incident where he found himself trapped at the North Pole (an incredibly long story), and even though due to a weird combination of dumb luck, Hector Hammond, Guy Gardner and other heroes referring to him by his first name in the middle of battle all of his villains had eventually found out, Neal was the only one that he had developed what could only be described as an incredibly odd friendship with.

That was the man who stood before him right now, looking decidedly soaked and like he hadn’t shaved or taken a shower in weeks.

Hal’s eyes narrowed.

“Have you been sleeping out here?”

The silence that stretched between them at that was only interrupted by the lightning striking the ground only meters from them.

“It’s not like there are that many job opportunities out there for medical doctors who have spent half of their adult lives in and out of prison,” his voice was resigned, all but stating outright that this was what caused all of his previous relapses: the inability to find work or even to pay for the treatment that he so desperately needed,

If Hal was honest he wasn’t in the best position right now either, he had only been saved by eviction while in space this time by Oliver stepping in and paying all of his late rent at the last minute.

He really shouldn’t.

Him suggesting this was really the worst idea of his life.

Batman would kill him if he ever found out.

That last one would really be more of an incentive than something that might actually deter him.

“So,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck, he knew this might be a major overstepping of boundaries. “Since Parallax I’ve been having problems living alone.”

“Harold…” and there it was: the rejection.

“No, no, hear me out, it isn’t a pity thing. It’s a mutually beneficial agreement!”

“Harold.” Was that the only response he was gonna get? The sky rumbled threateningly above them.

“C’mon, Doc, you know the risks of being struck by lightning.”

A sigh. “I guess just for one night, the electricity could bring him back out if it hit me so- Harold, do we really need to share an umbrella, you could just make two constructs.”

“Here, Doc, hold this,” only Hal Jordan could ignore someone so blithely, while at the same time forcing them to carry one of his heavy food bags.

Honestly, Hal enjoyed the roommate thing, John probably wouldn’t have gone for it again, given how bad their last attempt at it had been, but he had really never enjoyed living alone.

“Hey Neal, before we go home, do you reckon that Animal Fries would go with this?”

His response was another sigh and “I don’t think Batman’s villains have to go through this.”

**Author's Note:**

> I actually did a poll for whether I should write a ship fic for Sonar or Doctor Polaris but, uh, Bito crashed and burned. It was 80-20 last time I checked.


End file.
